Government refuses to register baby

I have often discussed family registry issues and the importance of ensuring that those in international marriages are listed on the koseki. You want to register your marriage and your children.  Once listed as a spouse or parent, your name will never go away. Even if divorced,  the divorced spouse's name is merely crossed off, not erased. 

Kyodo reports that "a woman sued a municipal government in Okayama Prefecture on Monday, arguing it unconstitutional that the government had refused to register her baby under a controversial Civil Code provision about the registration of babies born within 300 days of the divorce of a parent. In the lawsuit filed with the Okayama District Court, the plaintiff sought 3.3 million yen in damages from the local authority and the state on grounds that the refusal goes against the constitutionally guaranteed principle of equality under the law.The woman married her former husband in February 2006 and divorced him in March 2008 after suffering spousal abuse. She has since remarried and gave birth to the baby girl in November 2008. The municipal government refused to accept the baby’s birth report as the birth was within 300 days of the divorce and the mother must have become pregnant before divorcing her former husband, according to the complaint.Under the Civil Code, babies born within 300 days of the divorce of parents must be registered as the divorced husbands’ children. The children could be registered with the mothers’ current husbands following certain legal procedures.The woman said, ‘‘I became pregnant before the divorce while my ex-husband did not agree to an uncontested divorce.’’ She also said it was impossible for her to have a baby with her ex-husband as he had been under a court-issued restraining order since October 2006.She called the municipal government’s decision not to register her daughter ‘‘irrational discrimination.’’The Justice Ministry advised local governments in May 2007 that they must accept birth notifications if a woman submitting them can prove she became pregnant after a divorce.The plaintiff in the latest case decided to file the lawsuit as she became pregnant before her divorce."